Trails are groomed and maintained solely by volunteers who love nordic skiing for members of our community to enjoy.
Please no walking or biking on any trails.
Dogs must be leashed or under immediate control and always kept on the outside edge of groomed trails.

Pages

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Winter isn't over

Just because the low parts of our track are in knee-deep water doesn't mean it's the end of skiing! There is still a great deal of snow on the Cow Pasture (southernmost loop) at Teton Lakes, although the groomer might not be able to get there with all the water in the way.... But if you don't mind skiing in circles on old hard track - practically an ice rink - then that's still an option, I guess. I haven't given up hope that we will still resurrect the course yet. There are a few days of snow predicted. (I'm ignoring the few days of rain predicted).

Nearby Options:

There are lots of places for Nordic skiing. Besides the nearest ones highlighted below, there's also Teton Canyon (check out tvtap.org), Jackson Hole, and of course West Yellowstone's Rendezvous and Park trails. We keep a link to some of these places down on the right hand side of the blog.

Kelly Canyon

Pat sent a picture of Kelly Canyon this morning (did you know they groom for Nordic skiing?).

It's breathtakingly beautiful and worth the trip.
Pat says trail passes are just $5 (I think for half day). Not surprisingly, the best skiing is at the top of the mountain, which you can ski up (climbing hills is good for us, right?). However, they also have a one-time chair lift pass for $5 that puts you on top, so that's another option.
The trails are open for fat bikes and snowshoes, too. Parking is in the main lot with access to the lodge. Very nice!

Harriman

Jeff spent Saturday skate skiing at Harriman, which was gorgeous. He said it was a cement track, so it was icy-hard but fast, but there were some sun-exposed portions that were suddenly soft. I didn't get any report on classic skiing. Their grooming schedule is Friday evenings and (I think) Mondays? They update their Facebook page when they've groomed. Yesterday they wrote that the interior trails were pretty soft and the groomer sunk in a couple of times, so parts of the trails are better than others.

Crust

I can't quite recommend crust cruising yet - still a little early for that, I guess. My girls and I tried to crust cruise Saturday on the dry farms on the bench above Rexburg.

If you are a 65lb. 9 year-old, you'd have no trouble gliding all over the fields. My older daughter and I, however, kept punching through, and the crust was pretty pock-marked. We quit after about 40 minutes, but it was nice to be out anyway.